"Hi, Harry," Mary-Sue said, sounding just calm enough to give the impression of serenity and just nervous enough to make sure Harry knew how much talking to him meant to her.
Harry didn't respond, but gaped, open-mouthed at the bronze beauty standing in front of him.
Any other girl might have found this rude, or at least disconcerting, but Mary-Sue, able to understand anyone's emotions, no matter how complex (not that Harry’s were right then) knew in her heart that what he was trying to say was "It's a pleasure to meet you. Of course I've heard of you, you're Mary-Sue, the exchange student. I'm Harry Potter, and I must say you have gorgeous eyes, darling. Would you like to dance?"
Sighing at the imagined conversation, Mary-Sue answered his unasked request with a beaming "yes."
Harry, since he and Mary-Sue were obviously in love, understood what she was referring to and took her arm to head over to the dance floor.
Now, most Gryffindor parties didn't actually have a specific, wooden dance floor, as most teenage parties don't, but Mary-Sue, a lover of traditions and modern ideas put together, had suggested the idea, and everyone had loved it.
Harry, who had been a rather bad dancer merely two years ago at the Yule Ball of his fourth year, was influenced by Mary-Sue's fluid and graceful movements so much that he was able to dance in a suave and gentlemanly manner.
Mary-Sue, delighted by Harry's dancing abilities, rested her head comfortably on his shoulder.
'This is true love, I know it,' she thought contentedly, as Harry held her protectively in his once scrawny, but now muscular (from Quidditch, naturally) arms.
Just as Mary-Sue was beginning to get a little bit bored, Harry leaned down (for he had had another growth spurt and was now the perfect size - his and Mary-Sue's bodies fit like matching puzzle pieces while they danced) and kissed Mary-Sue delicately on the lips.
Mary-Sue giggled once the chaste kiss (which still conveyed passion beyond measure) was over and said teasingly (even though she could read his every thought through effortless legilimency):
"So unpredictable, Harry!"
He smiled appreciatively at her.
Mary-Sue grinned as she remembered her and Harry's first evening together. The day after the party (during which Harry had not, in fact, said a single word) had been the day they had first officially been a couple.
Today was their one-week anniversary, and, naturally, they were celebrating in the common room.
Ron and Hermione were sitting next to the enthusiastic couple, as they shared a rather small chair. Ron was staring ahead with a vacant expression and Hermione (looking almost like she might puke) seemed to be trying hard to ignore the disturbingly sappy conversation Harry was having with his girlfriend.
"Never thought I'd see the day," Hermione muttered, disgusted.
It seemed, however like she had just found something to distract her from the scene going on in the chair next to her.
"Harry, Ron! Look what I've found! I borrowed some old Daily Prophets from the library, and look what I've found!"
Ron watched her, relieved to have something other than Harry and Mary-Sue to concentrate on and Harry, too, gazed over, albeit rather more reluctantly.
"It's about the Half-Blood Prince! See this," she held up a photograph of a rather plain, and quite familiar looking girl, the caption of which was Eileen Prince, Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Team.
"Huh?" asked Ron, baffled. Though he had once been a master of strategy and capable of achieving the same grades as Harry, he had shockingly sunk in intelligence level, almost to that of a sort of gorilla. Or a baboon, perhaps.
Speaking of baboons, his sense of humor, too, had been eliminated over the past weeks, reducing him to 'Ron Weasley, the dumb sidekick of Harry Potter - the boyfriend of Mary-Sue!
"Prince! Don't you see? This could probably be the Half-Blood Prince!"
"But, princes are male!" Harry argued, "And plus, I can tell it's a bloke. I dunno how, but I can just tell."
"Yeah," added Ron, who seemed to always agree with Harry without question lately, "It's not like it's the Half-Blood Princess.”
"But wizards don't have princes! So 'Prince' has to either be a title or nickname of some sort, or be the person's real name."
At this point, Mary-Sue (who had been remaining respectfully silent, leaving the "golden trio" to themselves) spoke up.
"Guys, I think I have the answer! You're both right!"
"Shut up, Mary-Sue," said Hermione, who was very jealous of the girl's abilities and smarts.
Mary-Sue, being the emotional person she was, let sound a dry sob, and Harry put an arm around her protectively, glaring at Hermione.
Ron continued to watch a fly buzzing around the room, his mouth hanging open most unflatteringly.
"Let her speak, 'Mione," said Harry, employing the nickname he and Ron had just started calling her randomly around the time he got together with Mary-Sue.
Mary-Sue gave Harry a tear stained smile, and continued.
"Think about it. Maybe the Half-Blood Prince is a bloke, but Eileen Prince was his mother! And maybe she married a Muggle! So he would be a half-blood! That would makes sense, he would be half a prince!"
"You're brilliant, Mary-Sue!" Harry sighed, hugging her tighter.
Hermione rumpled her nose, unable to see anything illogical in the statement. Of course, even though she was quite probably the brightest witch of her age, she hadn't noticed Mary-Sue use legilemency to enter her mind and find those thoughts hidden away in Hermione's subconscious.
"Harry, I've just had a thought! What if it's Snape! Doesn't Eileen Prince look an awful lot like him?"
"You're right, Mary-Sue! Come on! We'd better go talk to Dumbledore!"
Ron continued to sit in his chair as the other three hurried off. By the look of things, he had just swallowed the fly.